Orange County was selected Thursday as one of six primary research sites across the country that will spearhead a 25-year, federally funded study of up to 100,000 children. The National Children’s Study, described as the largest and most comprehensive of its kind ever conducted, will look for links between childhood health and development and biological and environmental influences such as genetics, diet, chemical exposure, air quality and even how streets and neighborhoods are designed.

UC Irvine received $14.6 million to lead the initial phase of the Orange County study along with its partners: the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the County of Orange Health Care Agency, and the Children and Families Commission of Orange County.

Q. How is this study different?

A. Its size. Researchers will seek a massive sample – following up to 100,000 children nationally, including 1,250 in Orange County – in hopes their findings might shed light on the causes of many childhood health threats, including growing rates of obesity, diabetes, attention deficit disorder and autism.

And they will do so over time – a lot of time. Whereas most studies last five years or less, National Children’s Study researchers will follow children to the age of 21 years.

Another first: The research will begin before children are born by monitoring prospective mothers from the first trimester of pregnancy or earlier.

Q. How is Orange County involved?

A. Orange County is one of six “vanguard” sites across the United States selected to develop a research protocol and carry out the initial phase of the study. Other centers are in New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin.

UCI will head the Orange County portion of the study, assisted by the local partner agencies.

Once Orange County and the other five sites test their methodology, it will be adopted by another 95 sites across the country.

Q. Why was Orange County selected?

A. Age and diversity, according to Dr. Feizal Waffarn, chairman of the pediatrics department at UC Irvine and one of the five principal UC Irvine investigators in charge here.

About 30 percent of Orange County’s population – or roughly 860,000 residents – are younger than 20.

The county is also ethnically diverse, with Hispanics and Asians making up nearly 44 percent of the county’s population.

“Orange County was not chosen because it is a problem county but because we reflect the population diversity seen (throughout) the U.S.,” said Waffarn.

He also credited the excellence of Orange County’s scientific research community and local health and outreach organizations. “We are very proud. This is absolutely a unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put Orange County on the national map,” he said.

Q. Why is the study necessary?

A. Few medical research studies exist on children’s health, according to Dr. Troy Jacobs, an epidemiologist and medical director of the County of Orange Health Care Agency.

“There’s just so little that is done in terms of children’s health research,” he said. “There are so many times where we have to rely upon (medical research) done with adults and apply it to children. We don’t have the data and kids really deserve it.”

The lack of research coincides with a startling – and as yet unexplained – increase in childhood obesity, diabetes and autism.

Q. How will families be chosen to participate?

A. Orange County researchers will identify up to 250 women each year for five years who are of childbearing age and also statistically proportionate in terms of ethnicity, age range and marital status to the country as a whole. These women and their families will be approached by community partner organizations and asked to volunteer for the program. Those who agree must participate in a minimum of 15 in-person visits with researchers from the first trimester of pregnancy or earlier through 21 years of age. Biological samples from the mother and child, including blood and urine, as well as air, water, dirt and dust from the child’s environment, also will be collected.

Q. Why does it take 21 years to learn about children’s health?

A. Good question, some activists groups say. Although there might not be definitive proof that some childhood cancers are linked to chemicals such as mercury and lead, there is a “strong weight of evidence and trend” that demands action, according to Martha Arguello, director of the health and environment program of the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which is not affiliated with the study.

“We already know enough to act and should act now to protect children from known environmental toxins,” she said.

But researchers involved with the National Children’s Study said past scientific research may have missed vital clues to diseases because it was not comprehensive.

“There may be trends we can see in data but we’re still not able to answer the questions,” said Jacobs.

He pointed to early theories of heart disease, which initially blamed genetics only to discover controllable factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight after a long-term study was conducted.

Waffarn said his team hopes to release conclusive data as soon as it becomes available, by 2010 at the earliest.

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